Understanding the basic principles of knowledge translation
- Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, AL no 6701A, 120 Colonnade Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1B4, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto; and Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Canada; Bernard_Choi@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Two problems dictate why scientific knowledge needs to be translated for decision makers. The first problem is volume. Scientific findings are being published all the time. For example, there are some 17 000 new biomedical books published every year, along with 30 000 biomedical journals, resulting in annual increase of 7%.1 As a result, decision makers such as physicians need to read on average 19 original articles each day to keep abreast of their field.1,2 The second problem is complexity. Many of these studies use complicated designs, high power statistics, and technical jargons, which are not readily understood by people outside the …
